Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My thanks to Mr Duff for this report from Edinburgh last night. My thoughts on the JJR are known and to be honest, I never really got The Bellrays either but I never saw them and I won’t make it to Glasgow tonight. One thing I do know is that they shouldn’t be opening for these hokey sonic snake oil salesmen.

Without actually trying, I must have seen the Jim Jones Revue 9 or 10 times now - they've either been supporting someone I wanted to see or have been playing for free somewhere nearby - and I could never put my finger on exactly why there was such a fuss about them, or why I couldn't find it in me to care. Sure all the necessary ingredients are there, but despite repeated viewings and much benefit of the doubt all that volume and noise just doesn't communicate. Nearly every early review of the Revue namechecked Little Richard and the MC5. I have to say I never got the connection to the Five.

It took Mr Boyle's throwaway comment last night to expose what the real comparisons are. "It's like Spedding playing with Freddie 'Fingers' Lee" he said to me and in that instant it became clear - the JJR references are mid-70's rock'n'roll pastiche. They've a lot more in common with Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers or The Wild Angels or others of that breed than the 'oh-so-much-cooler' touchstones that usually get brought up. Add a wee dash of Slade Alive and you've got the JJR down. Exaggerated, overdone and soulless rehashes of historic high-points is what they deal in.

The Bellrays, who supported (!) the JJR last night despite being trumpeted as 'Aretha Franklin fronting the Stooges' are in truth a good deal more than a hodge-podge mix of the more obvious points of your record collection. They were the real stars last night. The real sweat and raw rock'n'roll that they brought to bear last night was a privilege to witness. Lisa started out a little shaky, the voice was all there but she seemed nervous. By the time they kicked into Sun Comes Down she's lost all self-consciousness and the whole band sound totally at ease. They close the show with Black Lightning, the album opener and despite calls for more, the DJ comes over the PA and it's over.

The Bellrays were triumphant. I believe that they're only doing Edinburgh and Glasgow before heading off to Europe. If you have the chance, I'd recommend you catch them at Tut's tonight. You can skip the headliners and still get home at a reasonable time too.

Search This Blog

A wee bit of background, etc.

This all kicked off as a print (Xerox) magazine in 1977 and now it's on the interweb. Named after the title track on The Dictators Go Girl Crazy (40 years old in 2015) the purpose has always been to uphold what’s good and pure and right in terms of rock’n’roll and its satellites.

It has nothing, nada, nowt to do with any festival(s) that devalue our namesake so don't send mp3's or anything else with regard to setting course for a career in the music business or anywhere else.

Take a look at what goes on here and if you think your fare fits then drop a line and maybe we can work something out.

I plan to put PDFs of all physical issues up here eventually and in addition, all Rockin’ Bones, Watch This and Fuzzbuzz.Maybe Psychedelic Basement, etc from Sounds too so that everything is in one place. Some of the quality of the source material isn’t terribly good but it’s all I have to work with. It will take some time. The 3 page pilot issue, “NBT 0” from September 1976 never survived as far as I know. Some of the content is a wee bit embarrassing at this juncture but every journey has to start someplace, right?